“Yes, yes, I know all about it, that’s the thing with the endorphins, that makes you feel good and why we should exercise and stuff, right?” is what I can hear myself say to someone bringing this up. I would pick up things here and there, yet really digging into the connection of exercise and how it effects us has never been something I’ve done.

Inspired by a recent post from Joel on what makes us happy I’ve set out to uncover the connection between our feeling of happiness and exercising regularly.

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What triggers happiness in our brain when we exercise?

Most of us are aware of what happens to the body when we exercise. We build more muscle or more stamina. We feel how daily activities like climbing stairs becomes easier if we exercise regularly. When it comes to our brain and mood though, the connection isn’t so clear.

The line around our “endorphins are released” is more something I throw around to sound smart, without really knowing what it means. Here is what actually happens:

If you start exercising, your brain recognizes this as a moment of stress. As your heart pressure increases, the brain thinks you are either fighting the enemy or fleeing from it. To protect yourself and your brain from stress, you release a protein called BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor). This BDNF has a protective and also reparative element to your memory neurons and acts as a reset switch. That’s why we often feel so at ease and things are clear after exercising and eventually happy.

At the same time, endorphins, another chemical to fight stress, is released in your brain. Your endorphins main purpose is this writes researcher McGovern:

These endorphins tend to minimize the discomfort of exercise, block the feeling of pain and are even associated with a feeling of euphoria.

Overall, there is a lot going on inside our brain and it is in fact oftentimes a lot more active than when we are just sitting down or actually concentrating mentally:

So, BDNF and endorphins are the reasons exercise makes us feel so good. The somewhat scary part is that they have a very similar and addictive behavior like morphine, heroine or nicotine. The only difference? Well, it’s actually good for us.

The key to maximize happiness through exercise: don’t do more, but focus on when

Now here is where it all gets interesting now. We know the basic foundations of why exercising makes us happy and what happens inside our brain cells. The most important part to uncover now, is of course how we can trigger this in an optimal and longer lasting way.

A recent study from Penn State university shed some light on the matter and the results are more than surprising. They found that to be more productive and happier on a given work day, it doesn’t matter so much, if you work-out regularly, if you haven’t worked out on that particular day:

“Those who had exercised during the preceding month but not on the day of testing generally did better on the memory test than those who had been sedentary, but did not perform nearly as well as those who had worked out that morning.”

New York Times best-selling author Gretchen Reynolds has written a whole book about the subject matter titled “The first 20 minutes”. To get the highest level of happiness and benefits for health, the key is not to become a professional athlete. On the contrary, a much smaller amount is needed to reach the level where happiness and productivity in every day life peaks:

“The first 20 minutes of moving around, if someone has been really sedentary, provide most of the health benefits. You get prolonged life, reduced disease risk — all of those things come in in the first 20 minutes of being active.”

So really, you can relax and don’t have to be on the look-out for the next killer work-out. All you have to do is get some focused 20 minutes in to get the full happiness boost every day:

“On exercise days, people’s mood significantly improved after exercising. Mood stayed about the same on days they didn’t, with the exception of people’s sense of calm which deteriorated.” (University of Bristol)

How to get into a consistent exercise habit: The dance with the endorphins

In a recent post from Joel, he wrote abou the power of daily exercise for his every day life. Coincidentally, he follows the above rules very accurately and exercises daily before doing anything else. He writes:

By 9:30am, I’ve done an hour of coding on the most important task I have right now on Buffer, I’ve been to the gym and had a great session, and I’ve done 30 minutes of emails. It’s only 9:30am and I’ve already succeeded, and I feel fantastic.

I’ve spoken lots to Joel about his habit of exercising and here are some of the most important things to do, in order to set yourself up for success and make your daily exercise fun:

Put your gym clothes right over your alarm clock or phone when you go to bed: This technique sounds rather simple, but has been one of the most powerful ones. If you put everything the way you want it for the gym before you go to sleep and put your alarm under your gym clothes, you will have a much easier time to convince yourself to put your gym clothes on.

Track your exercises and log them at the same time after every exercise: When you try to exercise regularly, the key is to make it a habit. One way to achieve this is to create a so called “reward”, that will remind you of the good feelings you get from exercising. In our big list of top web apps, we have a full section on fitness apps that might be handy. Try out Fitocracy or RunKeeper to log your work-outs. Try to have a very clear logging process in place. Log your work-out just before you go into the shower or exactly when you walk out of the gym.

Think about starting small and then start even smaller: Here is a little secret. When I first started exercising, I did it with 5 minutes per day, 3 times a week. Can you imagine that? 5 minutes of timed exercise, 3 times a week? That’s nothing you might be thinking. And you are right, because the task is so easy and anyone can succeed with it, you can really start to make a habit out of it. Try no more than 5 or 10 minutes if you are getting started.

Quick last fact: You get the highest level of happiness with exercise if you are just starting out

As a quick last fact, exercise, the increase of the BDNF proteins in your brain acts as a mood enhancer. The effects are similar to drug addiction one study found. So when you start exercising, the feeling of euphoria is the highest:

“The release of endorphins has an addictive effect, and more exercise is needed to achieve the same level of euphoria over time.” (McGovern)

Exercise and how it affects our level of happiness is an absolutely exciting topic for me. Have you played around with this too and seen any results? I would love to hear your thoughts on how exercise and happiness work together.

Another killer post Leo. Just what I needed to hear before going for my run.

I used to be an athlete. I represented my state for water polo. I was training 6 times a week for years and after “retiring”. I went to college and didn’t really work out for 5 years.

Long story short, I put on nearly 20 pounds in 5 years. Felt miserable. A few months back, I decided to start eating healthier (avoiding fried food and carbonated drinks, I still eat friend food once or twice a month. I mean who can avoid fried chicken right?) and started working out again, Lost nearly 7 pounds now.

Never felt more alive. 🙂

Cheers for putting together this well researched article. You rock.

LeoWid

Hi Aaron, so great to see you here and wow, what an interesting story of your relationship with exercising, I’d love to see a post on that!

Great to see you lost 7 pounds nearly again now and you are feeling great, keep it up and most importantly keep me posted on how the progress goes! 🙂

Amazing! You always seem to write the blog posts that fit my thought pattern to the day. I love exercise. This makes complete sense! You’re the MAN, Leo!

LeoWid

Hi Daniel, awesome, really good to see you here and that the post fits your thought pattern! 🙂

Rudy Wagner

I will be 82 in november and love working, always did,no matter how hard,dirty difficult .or how long it took to do it .I have no stress , I am healthy,and the more I do the more happy I am. I honestly think that being that active which is to me physical exercise makes me live longer healthier and happy! i .

Exercise does wonders for me as well. I usually give the excuse that I’m “too busy” to exercise, but I discovered that during the days that I push myself to workout, I end up being more productive!

LeoWid

Ah yes, great point Francesca, I know the “I’m too busy excuse” only too well myself. It reminds me of the quote “your productivity doesn’t come in hours, but in energy”, thanks for the awesome comment! 🙂

Robbie Williford

I love this post a lot. Lots of great content and facts. Thanks for sharing!

Just curious – are you suggesting that exercising for 20 minutes every day is as beneficial or even better for you than exercising for 3 – 4 times per week at an hour per workout? I’m 43 and am considering changing my routine to gain the real benefits of exercise (everything you stated).
Thank you.

Kini

This article summed up exactly why I continue to exercise on a regular basis

Great post. Exercise is an important part to my day. I don’t drink coffee or tea and food doesn’t do it for me so I go into the office, start at 7 and work flat out until 12 (taking a couple of minute breaks every hour).

At that stage I’ve done 5 hours of great work. My deadline is 12 because that’s when I go to the gym. If I didn’t have that deadline I wouldn’t get as much work done.

I go to the gym from 12 to 1 and then I am rearing to go again in work.

My training is generally about 30 to 40 minutes.

The value in Gym work is not related to the amount of time it’s how you use that time.

High intensity over a short period is much better.

If I run I jog then sprint then jog then sprint. Doing this over 20 minutes is much harder than jogging for an hour!

Total running is about 18 minutes. This was a routine we did as part of kickboxing. Try it!!! Running for an hour at the same pace is a waste! Your body gets used to this so value is diminished. Trick your body.

Richard Branson said that the reason he can get through so much in one day is because of exercise!

The timing of this article is interesting for me. I was just telling my wife how on the days I work out even though I know darn well I don’t look any different, I feel sexier and better about myself. Thanks for gathering together the research and presenting it like this.

for the last one year I have been thinking about going to the gym but I haven’t made the big move yet. your article is motivating I have to start with five minutes exercise.

AYR

Awesome piece and dead on! I just had a conversation about this subject not 2 hours before I saw it. The thing is habits good or bad are developed with time and repitition. It is definitely a holistic experience for body mind and spirit. Can’t hurt your sex life either!

“In the streets, under him bridges, in Cheap beats by dre the fields, singing the songs of the flops; singing beats by dre cheap the ballad of flops in the morning, at night, in the wind.”Thus they have been singing cheap dre beats and dedication to music is rooted to the bones!The sun masculine Wang Xu very early formation over the cheap beats by dre band busy over on the back of the guitar to sing everywhere lehtyqqaxgh0914.

Jrod

going to the gym is boring and hard to keep up… pick a competitive sport where you are forced to build a skill. It is much easier to stay dedicated to being active when you engage your mind as well as your muscles.

Nikki

that’s how you feel, doesn’t mean everyone feels that way.

Jon

To be fair, he never claimed that everyone feels that way.

Its me

To be fair obviously it was a blanket statement. I love going to the gym, my day doesn’t feel complete without it so I couldn’t disagree more.

Stu

I had the same thing… forgetting to take earphones to the gym was very boring… it felt really pointless; however, running worked OK for me, you get to experience different places on the way,

Well, duh.

That’s how you feel he feels, doesn’t mean everyone feels how you feel about what he feels.

ldb

If you hate other people, an iPod and the gym is way better than a sport…

On the last point, does the article suggest that initially, it is within the first 20 minutes that will provide you the biggest gain in euphoria. However, as time goes on (i.e. regularly exercise), it will take more than first 20 min to get back to the same level of high? If so, doesn’t that suggest we should not exercise as regularly as we should. Instead, we should only do so occasionally, so that we can always get that first 20 min high?

Thanks for this, I happened to read it at 7am so my partner and I jumped on the bikes to go get a coffee 🙂 Feeling great!

ChaseVenters

I started getting daily exercise about 15 months ago and I can attest to its effectiveness. While I started out in the gym, I really prefer the outdoors so I tend to run in a nearby park instead of using some machine. Save the gym for when you do weight lifting (which I love doing as well.)

Reading this article makes me wish my routine was set up around my mornings, though… but at the point I’m at, I’m exercising for an hour or more each session, and I don’t know if I can fit that into the morning.

Depends on your pain level. I lift 5xweek and I am happier for it. I don’t derive the same level of satisfaction from cardio. Perhaps, I have tainted myself and now my endorphin are use to an intense workout. Your body works in mysterious ways. Just find your threshold and make the most out of it.

Steve

I tried jogging in the mornings 6 days a week from January to the end of March. Tracked it & I didn’t miss a day! I went from 3k to 7k. I was inspired by Haruki Murakami who used to run 10k 6 days a week too.

Contrary to popular opinion though I didn’t feel any benefit from running. I felt the occasional high once or twice. But more often came back feeling really depressed for no reason. It was very strange. It’s like the exact opposite as to what was meant to happen.

I haven’t run since March. I found it very boring. I may get back into it but I’m on the look out for more interesting exercise. I would have loved to kept up with Murakami but when he talks about running there’s something there which he enjoys which I just don’t have.

Christina Sea

I work out daily, usually in the mornings. When I occasionally miss a work out, I feel foggy in the brain and can’t think as clearly. I’ve been on this routine for about a year now and can see a tremendous change in my physical, emotional and mental aspects, while also getting a little ego boost from the compliments I receive. 🙂

Great post, thank you! I believe so much in the ability of movement to help balance us and make us happy, that I started a social enterprise around the idea! As a lifelong athlete I am a fervent supporter of sports and exercise, and find that yoga is a form of movement that is specifically designed to help us learn about and care for ourselves, which is crucial not only to being happy but to transforming our communities into a happier places as well.

Nice article – I love walking with my dog between workhours and going to the office by bike. That feels good and now I’ve read your article, it gives me no objection to stop working for a while.

Thanks!
Vanessa

MSK

Great Read! Thanks.

Nicky

I’ve been going spinning twice a week for nearly a year – recently my long term relationship broke up and i’ve noticed on the days i go spinning that i feel so much more possitive for a good 12 hours after it and i sleep like a log too. Definitely works for me, so much so that i’m now going three times a week – what with this and the heartbreak diet i’m also looking better 🙂

Queen Red

this was great information for my science project!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =0

Twinkletoes

I’m 12 almost 13 and I love dancing in my room with the shades down and the door locked. I turn the music up loud and sometimes I can’t help but bounce up and down to the music and feel like touching the ceiling. I feel so happy while dancing it’s just so weird! I think it helps with my health too because I just can’t stick to a healthy diet even though I resist eating any cake or brownies but I occasionally have myself a pack of skittles hehe and I’m just barely at a healthy weight with a BMI of 29.9 so I’m trying to get within the middle of that so I’m not at risk of becoming overweight. I may be making SOME progress since I can now dance to 2 songs in a row without having to stop for a breath. I used to do 5 songs in a row but I took a hiatus from it and now I’m trying to rectify that progress I had and make everyday tasks easier cause i have to go up 6 flights of stairs every single bloody day! (except weekends cause no school obvs.) and it causes me to be exhausted in Reading and Language Arts. At least it’s part of my exercise routine and I’ll have to do the same thing next year :/ 🙂

Kat

Good for you! My son is almost 13, too– and I wish he’d pick up this habit more. He’s been having a hard time finding something he likes to do enough to do it regularly, though he does like racquetball. He also has lots of stairs to go up both a home and at school, and I’m trying to help him make better food choices.

Luc

Well done you!!!

Su-Sun

I love this article. I started exercising 2 months ago after years of not. Weights (2x inc 1x with a personal trainer) and spinning (1x) a week. Excited – getting stronger. BUT… sometimes I feel buzzy/kinda stressed in my body. Can you shed any light? Is my routine too intense? Or is my body just getting used to the new “stress level”? Also curious – do you get the benefits you talk about from aerobic, or also anaerobic, exercise?

Christina Boettger

This was a very good read. I’m doing a research paper for my English class. I get to choose the subject. When my report is done it’ll be answering this question “How does one achieve Happiness?” In my report I’ll be talking about Exercise, the food you eat, meditation, acts of kindness, and the amount of sleep you get; and how they can make you happier. this site is helping me get the Exercise part down. Thank you.

Have you ever met that person that
is always sad and always complain about their life? Have you ever met a person
that has given up in life? Maybe you thought to yourself what got them to this position.
A lot of things can make a person unhappy, stressed or even depressed. There are always bumps and downs in life. Preparing
ourselves for this let downs are that best way to deal them, because in live we
don’t know what will come next. One day we are on top of the world the next we
are on the bottom scrapping to pick ourselves up. All of us want to be happy
and have a nice life but if we don’t follow certain ways it could be hard. Happiness
can change your life and the life’s around you. One of the main things that can
make a person happy and keep the happiness they have is exercise and physical
activity.

Exercising can relive stress. During the day a lot of things
make us stress. The homework that is due tomorrow or the reports we have to do
for work or even our relationship with your family and spouse can make you
stress. Working out can relive the stress causing toxins in our body and
release endorphins that make us happy.

Improving our body figure can build confidence and can make
us happy with our own skin. The more muscle we gain and the more fit we become,
the healthier our brain becomes. A happy brain makes a happy person.

Working out gives us a purpose to do something. Most people
complain about not having a purpose in life and wondering, just living day to
day. Working out can put you in the middle of a community, people just like you
trying to better themselves.

Exercise make your body tired which helps you sleep easily and
earlier. Since you get tired from exercise you can fall asleep easily and stay asleep.
The more sleep you get the more happy you become. The human brain has to get at
least 7 hours of sleep every night. Working- out gives you the natural drug to
fall asleep.

Working out can make you a better person and can give you a positive
look on life and the things that happen around you. You will treat things
better and you can have more confidence. You will make better decisions on
things that matter and you will live a long life.

beruk beyene

Working out your happiness

Have you ever met that person that
is always sad and always complain about their life? Have you ever met a person
that has given up in life? Maybe you thought to yourself what got them to this
position. A lot of things can make a person unhappy, stressed or even
depressed. There are always bumps and
downs in life. Preparing ourselves for this let downs are that best way to deal
them, because in live we don’t know what will come next. One day we are on top
of the world the next we are on the bottom scrapping to pick ourselves up. All
of us want to be happy and have a nice life but if we don’t follow certain ways
it could be hard. Happiness can change your life and the life’s around you. One
of the main things that can make a person happy and keep the happiness they
have is exercise and physical activity.

Exercising can relive stress. During the day a lot of things
make us stress. The homework that is due tomorrow or the reports we have to do
for work or even our relationship with your family and spouse can make you
stress. Working out can relive the stress causing toxins in our body and
release endorphins that make us happy.

Improving our body figure can build confidence and can make
us happy with our own skin. The more muscle we gain and the more fit we become,
the healthier our brain becomes. A happy brain makes a happy person.

Working out gives us a purpose to do something. Most people
complain about not having a purpose in life and wondering, just living day to
day. Working out can put you in the middle of a community, people just like you
trying to better themselves.

Exercise make your body tired which helps you sleep easily
and earlier. Since you get tired from exercise you can fall asleep easily and
stay asleep. The more sleep you get the more happy you become. The human brain
has to get at least 7 hours of sleep every night. Working- out gives you the
natural drug to fall asleep.

Working out can make you a better person and can give you a
positive look on life and the things that happen around you. You will treat
things better and you can have more confidence. You will make better decisions
on things that matter and you will live a long life.

I can confirm from my own experiments that walking outside for 20-30 mins before lunch is a fantastic way to feel much happier throughout the day. I do strength training 3 times/week but the 20min lunch walk is more for mental health and I do it every day it’s possible. Even if you have a hectic morning with lots of negative stress, a short walk, preferably in a calm environment with nature, will help you gain perspective and just shrug off the negative feelings.

tylerw

Just “shrug” off your problems. Increase happiness and traps.

Sarahw

Hi! I am 30 and have never felt this rush until today when we brought home a treadmill. After 35 minutes walking, I feel awesome. I am interested to know if this will continue when I try this again tomorrow. Cheers! Thx for the article!

Akash Bhat

I’ve been playing badminton for some time now. Initially it started out as just a hobby or something I just wanted to learn but now, it is 2 hours of close to meditation for me. While playing I tend to forget my name, where I live any details of the day because my focus resides on that shuttle, just that shuttle. And afterwards I literally have to break my mind off the game to regain worldly consciousness.. 😀 I go in to the court feeling frustrated, sulky and all blown out and I come out refreshed and ready for anything that comes my way. That is the power of exercising daily.

Monica Ramos

Great article! This gives me more of a reason to exercise at the beginning of the day instead of the end. When I do work out (not nearly as often as I should), I find I do it in the evening. I’ve heard all the reasons why I should do it first as opposed to last in my day but this piece hits home for me more than any of those other known benefits. Thanks! Will definitely share with my Believing is Seeing fans at http://fb.com/bisquotes

Luv it! Just the motivation I needed to start getting some morning exercise in again!

PETEY

I,ve been biking for over 20 years ,first I bike to work 2.5 miles at first I,m winded ,but as I go on I feel my energy levels rise.sometimes I take a longer route to get there because of the feeling I,m getting .I know when I had enough,once in work I sprint my job for 4 hours.the most productive part of the day, I ride back home for lunch, so my appitite slow to a pace to eat lite drink water and I,m full trek back ans slow roll my routine to finish the day. I,m relaxed,feel great and when home down load relaxing have another lite meal a glass of wine before retiring and sleep thru the whole nite ,the next day repeat;;winter is the tuff part at 70 years of age lol but I still doit

Shawn Stevenson

Great article, and great points! I definitely have a lot of experience testing this. Even 5 minutes of yoga, or rebounding, even mobility work makes my brain sharper and ideas flow easier.

michaelqz

Let us not keep saying that the euphoria experienced during and after exercise is due to endorphins. This theory was disproven many times over, yet we keep saying it.

The real cause of the “runners high” is more likely to be a combination of epinephrine, serotonin, dopamine and endocannabinoids. It may also be linked to temperature regulation.

Zunaira Elahi

Thanks for motivating me to resume my exercise routine!

Jan Udlock

Thank you for the article. I’m on/at my treadmill desk as I type!

Jess

I truly believe exercising helps out way of thinking/happiness! I have had some personal things happening lately that have been making me feel very anxious and nervous. Today I worked out for the first time since these feelings first started and I realized that hours after I had worked out, I hadn’t thought about the stress of my situation or the situation itself at all. I felt so at ease and I was able to come home and get things done around the house and just relax! I haven’t done that in days.. I would just lay around feeling bad feelings. But the minute I stepped out of that gym I completely forgot about all of it and I felt like myself again. Truly amazing never underestimate the power of exercise.

Armoured Fury

I’ve started to work out a lot lately, haven’t worked out properly for about 10 years i guess it’s because i don’t really get fat.

Anyway i suffer with anxiety and depression, anxiety more often than depression, but I’m finding that by exercising I’m feeling a lot happier in myself. I dunno i always feel great after, i want to do things and just be really happy.

I guess it’s a good counter-measure for anxiety and depression =D

Ripeka

Having had sustained periods of my life where I have got up early and exercised (at home, gym, swimming, walks), I can honestly say that I have never noticed any difference in my moods from doing so. I do believe in the need for exercise but some people might get disappointed if they make a start and then expect changes in their mood (as touted in this article) and then it doesn’t work for them.

Yes, men!

For fitness apps, I can recommend bodbot.com. It’s great, imo and does all the work for you planning which exersices to do. Plenty of customization options as well. There’s a paid version too with more features such as diet tracking if you’re really serious about it, but I just use the free version and that works plenty fine for me.

Hi, I’m 66 (and ran into this interesting article) and have found out that physical activity does me a lot of good. I do hate running and fitness centres though. Today I played tennis single for at least an hour with a friend. The rest of the day is like a piece of cake (mind, focus, happiness). I recently found a tennis wall, where I can hit the ball at full power for around 45 minutes or so; it’s like a meditative exercise and again: all smooth afterwards. Hitting 100 golf balls on the driving range is also fun, but not so rewarding in the sense of the feeling afterwards. I really need to sweat; then I know I’ll feel good afterwards. I’m considering buying a cross trainer but I doubt if I’ll keep up the boring effort. I’ll try a 20 minute exercise soon and see if that also works.
I wonder why my body needs this. Am I still so close to a Neanderthaler? Maybe by origin: Netherlander is close to Neanderthaler…;-))

I hope this can make me happy. I’ve tried so many things, and they always seem to fail.

loona

This article might just have been the thing to get me regularly exercising/motivated again! 🙂 Only 2 years ago I was 50lbs thinner than now and exercised every single day, often twice a day, it’s incredibly embarrassing. I’ve never been overweight in my life until now (after a year and a half battle with depression) find it a true struggle to even try to exercise. I’ve gotten used to NOT exercising, but choosing to exercise regularly again is the key – making something a subtle habit. Getting started and sticking with it is the hardest part… gotta stay focused on getting past that I suppose!

Chairman Meow

Everyone needs to read this amazing book about all the neurotransmitters, neuropeptides, and growth factors that are stimulated by exercise and how exercise primes the brain for learning, improves memory, overcomes anxiety, reduces stress, combats depression, and activates neurogenesis throughout all stages of life. It will inspire you to exercise more and better than you already do… http://www.amazon.com/Spark-Revolutionary-Science-Exercise-Brain/dp/0316113514

Ricky Margan

This is a great and informative blog. Exercise can help prevent excess weight gain or help maintain weight loss. Dancing is a most enjoyable form of exercise. It can help you to lose weight, strengthen and tone your body, increase stamina and flexibility, improve balance and good for the brain. If you start exercising, your brain recognizes this as a moment of stress. As your heart pressure increases, the brain thinks you are either fighting the enemy or fleeing from it. My cousin lives in Dubai and he learns Dance at Dubai Performing Arts Academy where fitness related dance done here. This academy provides very quality bodywork.

Most of us like to think that we are in-control of our actions. Turns out, your brain can be a big jerk, and you are susceptible to a large list of cognitive biases and natural reactions that tend to hold you back from acting objectively. Luckily, some good social psychology books (spurred on by well-research papers & […]